OHL recognizes Thomson’s play
NORTH BAY, Ont. – Ben Thomson, the Ontario Hockey League’s newest Player of the Week, knew a thing or two about playing in front of a passionate fan base even before being acquired by the North Bay Battalion.
Overager Thomson played 260 games over four-plus OHL seasons with the Kitchener Rangers, and there were many games when the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium was full and rocking to capacity.
But Thomson, who joined the Troops on Nov. 22 in a trade for fellow left winger Brandon Robinson, said he expects to see the same kind of support at 7 p.m. Tuesday when the Battalion returns to Memorial Gardens to resume its OHL Championship Series with the Guelph Storm.
The best-of-seven series is tied 1-1 after two games at Guelph. The Storm won the opener 3-2 in overtime Thursday night, while the Troops prevailed 4-3 in overtime Friday night. The Battalion hosts the fourth game at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
“There were some big games in Kitchener when the building was sold out and the fans were going nuts,” said Thomson, who was recognized as the OHL’s top performer for the period ended Sunday after recording one goal and two assists for three points in the games at Guelph.
“But the fans in North Bay are crazy about the team and they get riled up on game days, and that’s what we need. The fans will be a big advantage for us now the series is back at home. We’ve played in front of these fans so much that we use it as a motivator. We know what to expect out of our fans.”
Thomson said home ice won’t mean a deviation from the game plan.
“The next game is the most important right now. We aren’t worried about Game 4; we need to get a win in Game 3. If you get too caught up in the moment, you get ahead of yourself and things don’t work out. We’re hoping for two wins at home, but we need to break it down by one shift and period at a time. That’s how you win in the playoffs.”
Thomson earned two assists in Game 2, the first coming when he set up Nick Paul’s tying goal on the power play at 14:32 of the third period.
“Any penalty can be huge at this point of the season, and many times special teams will be what wins and loses games,” said Thomson, who has five goals and nine assists for 14 points and a league-leading 55 penalty minutes in 19 playoff games. “Our power play has been good, and we need to keep that up in the next few games.”
Barclay Goodrow scored at 2:30 of overtime, whipping Thomson’s hard feed past Guelph goaltender Justin Nichols from the high slot.
“I don’t know how he handled that pass,” said Thomson, who skates on a line with right winger Goodrow and centre Paul. “I pretty much shot the puck at him. I didn’t want it to get intercepted. I knew he had the hands and the ability to handle that pass, so I wasn’t too worried. He did a great job to corral it and made a great shot.”
Thomson scored North Bay’s first goal of the series, giving the Battalion a 1-0 lead on the power play early in the second period of the opener. The Troops survived some rocky moments in the first period, but goaltender Jake Smith helped repel the Storm attack.
“You could see in the first period of Game 1 that we were a little hesitant but, once we realized we could play with those guys and we could win, we started playing well,” said Thomson. “Jake did most of the work then, and we needed him to really step up and he did. From then on we took it to them. We wanted to get a split out of their building and we got that.”
Thomson and his linemates have combined for 27 goals and 25 assists for 52 points in the playoffs.
“We did some tinkering with lines throughout the season, but we’ve found some great chemistry and we’ve been riding it for a while,” said Thomson, an Orangeville, Ont., resident who turned 21 on Jan. 16. “We know where the other guy is, and we trust each other to make the right play and to score the goals when we need them.
“We’re all big guys and willing to go out there and hit, and that creates a lot of space. We hit the other team’s defencemen and pressure their forwards, and eventually the other team comes to look for that and that gives us a little more time to use our skill to make plays.”
Thomson scored 24 goals and earned 15 assists for 39 points in 43 regular-season games with the Battalion. In 303 career games with Kitchener and North Bay, he scored 65 goals and added 85 assists for 150 points while accumulating 483 penalty minutes. In a total of 63 playoff games, he has 11 goals and 18 assists for 29 points with 115 penalty minutes.
“I knew I’d be going to a team making a run and I thought the Eastern Conference was wide open. I know I needed to come in and make an impact and help the team win. They traded away a good player for me. The change of scenery helped me a bit, and I have a different role. I wanted to show that I could do more than just hit and fight.”
Thomson is the second member of the Battalion selected as Player of the Week in the current playoffs after Goodrow was recognized for the period ended April 20. Centre Matt Duchene, in 2009, when the Brampton-based Battalion went to the OHL final, is the only other member of the Troops so honoured in the postseason in the franchise’s 16-year history.
